Probably it's been more than 8 years when I saw Prince of Tennis and I still remember every bit of it. I'm an avid follower of the anime and I've finished the show watching it in local channels. Add it up with the right timing, which is after school hours then there's definitely no way I could miss and enjoy it.
Sports anime was never been my type but because of finishing the anime Slam Dunk, it came to me that sports anime was not that bad and there's a few out there that stands out the list. So I gave Prince of Tennis a shot, and because there's no other choice I stayed with the anime until I finished it. For those of you who's not patient enough to read anime reviews I'll honestly say that Prince of Tennis pales in comparison to Slam Dunk. That's it! you got the whole picture now.
If you want me to elaborate, Prince of Tennis lacks to many aspects of a sports anime that I'm looking for. Story a 6, Character development/ Personalities a 6, Animation/Music a good 8 and Heart Pounding match ups a poor 5.
Story is one of the most important aspect that I look into an anime and Prince of Tennis doesn't thrive into it. The story of each characters doesn't impress as well and it's just sums up to this, "Be the best in the Country!" it doesn't contain drama which creates the added flavor of emotion in the show. If there's just some driving factor to the characters and not just "I like the sport" mentality with some added twists, I think it could have been better.
Character Development is poor too because I can see everyone as a Genius, they got this intense training or something but I can sense that they'll just gonna win in the end. The protagonists and his team is uberly hype which makes POT (Prince of Tennis) rather unexciting. One aspect that I like though is the vast personalities that the anime has, you got cheerful MoMo chan, Hot Headed Kaido and the cool Captain Tezuka.
But despite the poor story line and Character developments/personalities I still enjoyed watching the series. And it's because it's one of the anime which made a good use of 'Techniques and Super Moves' It may be overused but it does works in making POT interesting. You may call it absurd but those impossible-to-do - UNREALISTIC moves is still a good sight and works very well to impress the viewers.
For those who are looking to a good sports anime out there you can give Prince of Tennis a try. It's good for someone on their pre-teen years but mature audience who doesn't want overly hyped moves would dislike the show. Prince of Tennis is definitely targeted for the growing boys and the theme is not just for everyone. Yet I'd still give it a solid B+ as it doesn't fail to entertain.